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Big Beer

Hardywood Park Craft Brewery will build a $28 million complex in Goochland County.

Scott ElmquistPhase one of the $28 million Hardywood Park Craft Brewery expansion will open in 2017.

Hardywood Park Craft Brewery figured out how get beer to the people without making them stop for food on the way to the bar just one year after it started production. That's when the law changed in 2012 to allow breweries to sell full cups instead of handing out tiny free samples.

Now, with $2 million in state and local incentives, the brewery plans to build a $28 million complex that will include a brewing facility, tap room, amphitheater and beer garden, according to an announcement from the governor. The expansion will create 56 new jobs, and the brewery will increase its use of locally grown products. The new facility also will use renewable energy exclusively. The plan is to open the first phase of the project by 2017.

Hardywood has no intention of forgetting about its original location on Ownby Lane. “Opening the new facility will enable us to dedicate our 20-barrel brewery in the City of Richmond entirely to creative brewing, experimentation and collaboration,” co-owner Patrick Murtaugh says on the brewery’s website.